Robert Browning presents the Duke as a self-centered, arrogant, controlling, chauvinistic, very jealous man. He makes it clear that he did not agree with his last Duchess’ enticing behaviour and her death could had been partially due to his high expectations. Browning uses blunt, harsh language between the characters to show their relationship. ‘Just this or that in you disgusts me’, ‘ Disgusts’ is a strong, powerful word, which forcefully illustrates his feelings. The first line of ‘My Last Duchess’ produces an arrogant attitude of the Duke. The first two words of this sentence tell us something different about the duke. The word ‘My’ shows arrogance and the type of attitude he had towards his wife. ‘Last’ tells us about the Duke’s way of life and proclaims that he has always had a wife to admire. ‘That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall’ this comes across as a casual attitude towards the reader almost as if he is bragging about her, this also shows he is treating her as a thing of possession. ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘My’ recur constantly throughout the poem and the poem ends with a heavy stress on the words ‘for me’, this portrays the Duke as a self-centered, selfish man. His arrogance and ruthlessness is very skilfully exposed again when being so persistent about the Count receiving the right message and what is expected of his next wife.
Robert Browning uses vivid imagery to describe the last Duchess. The Duke explained that his wife was extremely flirtatious and easily impressed. The Dukes jealous attitude conflicted with her character and was a cause why the relationship didn’t work. He comments on her personality ‘She looked on, and her looks went everywhere’ this shows how the young wife didn’t show the Duke loyalty. This could have affected the relationship as the Duke believes himself to be superior to her therefore all eyes must be upon him, it also possibly hints that the Dukes sees her as a cheat. We are in sighted into the Dukes heritage ‘As if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody’s gift.’ This demonstrates the Duke’s awareness of own status, and anger at his wife’s lack of awareness of it. It is clear that he is proud of his heritage and would not lower himself for her.
The Duchess created the element of distrust that was bestowed into the marriage; because of her traits the relationship will no longer work. Her lack of appreciation of her position angers the Duke to end the relationship. However it cannot all be blamed on the Duchess. The Duke was a ruthless man ‘laying down commandments’ it is seen as an extremely strict relationship possibly too much so for the young girl to understand and be a part of. His continuous insecurity and jealousy affect the relationship at a great amount also.
Both ‘The Laboratory’ and ‘My Last Duchess’ are of anger and resentment, after feeling pain through love or lack of. In ‘The Laboratory’ it is the discarded mistress who is jealous about other women flirting and dancing with the King, and in ‘My Last Duchess’ it is of the Duke, who shows annoyance in the way the his last Duchess conducted herself with other men. Both of the poems involve wealthy people driven to kill because of their envy. The strong, dramatic imagery is used when Browning illustrates these scenes. Both of these poems describe someone disappointed in love. The layout of these poems is different. ‘My Last Duchess’ is structured using heroic couplets, with the rhyme scheme of (a, a, b, b). Robert Browning has structured ‘The Laboratory’ to show the way this disjointed woman is thinking. The poem is written in twelve stanzas, all of four lines, rhymed (a, a, b, b) similarly to ‘My Last Duchess’.
In the poem ‘The Laboratory’ by Robert Browning the narrator of the poem shows that she is very bitter towards her love as she wants him all to herself and not have to share him with others. She wants revenge on the times that she has missed out on without him and also for the times when ‘they believe my tears flow’. Browning gives us the impression that the bitter woman forgives her love as she feels he’s been ensnared but cannot react.
This relationship in ‘The Laboratory’ is clearly failing and her lover has been tempted elsewhere. It is clear that the narrator has strong emotional feelings for ‘him’ and gives us the impression that she would forgive him as she feels its not his fault. She seems to appear wealthy and mixes in the highest society. However she is very unlike from the Duke of Ferrara, who barely speaks a word, and silences his wife forever. This individual is personally weak, powerless to use her position or forceful speech to change her situation. She does not show her hatred openly, yet resorts to stealth by making a poison. She cannot keep a man's love and almost flirts with the old man who mixes the poison - she offers him a kiss, as if she were voluptuous and desirable, but we know that she cannot compete with her rival. Throughout the poem Robert Browning gives the impression that she is mentally ill and the thoughts are not of someone ‘normal’. When she calls herself ‘little’ and a ‘minion’, she perhaps tries to show what others see of her. I feel ‘The Laboratory’ is a more unpleasant poem as it talks more about the excessive punishment and revenge the narrator is taking. We are shown more how the mistress is killed in ‘The Laboratory’ and revealed the poisons used to kill her. Browning uses great description in illustrating the poisons and by going into such detail it highlights the pleasure the speaker is taking watching the poisons being made. In ‘My Last Duchess’ the Duke does not go into as much detail to how she Is killed and does not make it at all clear at first to how she was killed, we assume she was poisoned. This kind of ‘gruesome’ poetry was unusual for the time and concerned Victorian values. Browning may presented his characters in this way to be set aside from the usual poets of the time and try and introduce a new kind of poetry that didn’t just talk about happy relationships and undying love.
The poems are both in dramatic monologue because the narrators are revealing their personal feelings throughout the poem to the reader. They both include high members of society talking about taking revenge on a lover or ex-lover. The poem I preferred was ‘My Last Duchess’. I enjoyed this one the most because you get a clear image of the characters involved. I also enjoyed the rhyme scheme as it flowed well with continuous enjambement.
